Aviation News in Brief 2 September 2020

Korean Air takes top spot in global customer satisfaction: Korean Air took first place in the air passenger transport service sector at the 2020 Global Customer Satisfaction Index (GCSI) awards. This is the 16th consecutive year Korean Air has topped the list. Developed by Global Management Association (GMA) under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, GCSI is an index to select the best corporation in each category. It compiles and evaluates customer satisfaction levels, global competitiveness and customer loyalty. Korean Air’s continuous efforts to differentiate its services and introduce eco-friendly aircraft have been recognized as the best by the industry since 2005. The airline has been strongly committed to improving customer experience; its recent efforts include launching baggage notification system, expanding self-check-in options and strengthening disinfection on its aircraft. Korean Air has also been actively reassuring passengers of a safe in-flight environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline maintains safe flights by thoroughly disinfecting all its aircraft. The airline carries out disinfection more often than the legal requirements. Domestic flights are disinfected more than once a week, and additional disinfection work is performed on all international flights arriving at Incheon International Airport and those departing from Incheon to the Americas. Cathay Pacific Group and GE Aviation expand digital partnership: GE Aviation and Cathay Pacific Group have signed a five-year agreement to implement GE’s Event Measurement System (EMS) for flight analytics and the FlightPulse pilot app. The digital technologies will be deployed across various fleet types in Cathay Pacific Group in September as well as the pilot community later in 2020. The agreement includes Cathay Pacific, Cathay Dragon and Air Hong Kong. FlightPulse is a mobile app that uses aircraft data and advanced flight data analytics to enable pilots to securely access their own flying metrics and trends. FlightPulse can be used to optimise efficiency, reduce operational risk and improve pilot awareness. GE Aviation’s flight analytics service uses flight data generated by the aircraft and merges it with the airline’s operational data. It applies proprietary data management and analytics technology to help Cathay Pacific better manage their aircraft operations and assets, providing previously unavailable insight into efficiency, flight safety, engineering and maintenance. Magnetic Leasing signs agreement with Global Crossing Airlines: Magnetic Leasing, an international aviation asset management company, has signed a letter of intent with Global Crossing Airlines, also known as GlobalX, for one Airbus A321 aircraft lease. The aircraft is expected to be delivered in December, 2020. The aircraft was built in 2005 and was previously operated by a major government-owned Asian airline until it was acquired by the Magnetic Leasing in the beginning of 2020. Prior to delivery, the aircraft will undergo a C-Check which is scheduled to be performed by Magnetic MRO at the company’s hangars in Tallinn, Estonia. In addition, the aircraft will be painted in GlobalX livery, also at Magnetic MRO. This aircraft was specifically selected by GlobalX to initiate its services to Cuba, subject to governmental approvals. In addition, GlobalX continues the development of its A320 fleet plan and expects to announce the closing of additional aircraft under purchase contracts in the next 15 days. Peach Aviation announces new routes: Peach Aviation Representative Director and CEO  Takeaki Mori announced that it will be offering two new routes, each daily flights, on its winter schedule (beginning 25 October) for Sapporo (New Chitose) – Okinawa (Naha) and Sendai-Okinawa (Naha), becoming the first LCC to do so. The Sapporo (New Chitose) – Okinawa (Naha) route will be Peach’s longest domestic flight, spanning approximately 2,400 km and taking three to four hours. The Sendai – Okinawa (Naha) route will be the first LCC flight to connect the Tohoku region and Okinawa. Peach will establish new local routes to support the resumption of travel and the revitalisation of local economies while implementing thorough measures to prevent infection. In addition to our own infection prevention measures, we will also call for customer cooperation with infection prevention measures and the thorough implementation of preventive measures at flight destinations to drive the achievement of “Japan that can be travelled with peace of mind.” by bridging local areas. CAL meets with Czech officials: Su-chien Hsieh, chairman of China Airlines, Taiwan’s flag carrier, met with a delegation headed by President of the Senate Miloš Vystrčil where the two parties discussed future opportunities for cooperation once borders are re-opened, and expressed hopes that closer ties will foster greater economic and trade between Taiwan and the Czech Republic. Prague is a key hub of trade, commerce and tourism in Europe. China Airlines and Czech Airlines are currently both members of the SkyTeam Alliance, with code-share flights that connect Prague, via other European destinations that China Airlines flies to. Factors such as the development of the Taiwan-Czech market, the global aviation network and its European market strategy are now being assessed by China Airlines. The recovery of the overall aviation market in the post-COVID era is also being monitored as well. Feasibility of introducing Taipei-Prague services in the future is now being actively studied. Jetstar Asia offers new Fly Well Programme: Jetstar Asia will introduce a number of initiatives to give passengers increased peace-of-mind as travel restrictions start to ease and Jetstar Asia increases the number of services it operates. To be launched on 7 September 2020, the Fly Well programme brings together a host of measures, in line with government regulations, best-practice medical advice and feedback from customers. The Fly Well programme will include social distancing to be practiced throughout the airport, temperature checking pre-boarding, sequenced boarding to minimise crowding, working with airports on other safeguards in the terminal, including regular disinfection of security screening points and installing hygiene screens at airline customer service desks wherever practical and several other measures. Eurowings signs to use FLYdocs: Eurowings, the Lufthansa Group’s point-to-point airline, recently signed a new contract to use the FLYdocs aircraft records management platform across its fleet of 100 aircraft. The five-year agreement will help the airline to modernise, automate and digitise its aircraft records. The FLYdocs platform’s seamless integration with market-leading ERP systems AMOS will also help drive full digital aircraft compliance on-demand for the Eurowings team. Holger Beck, managing director at Eurowings Technik said: “We have accelerated our digital drive across all our operations, and the adoption of FLYdocs is part of a smarter future at Eurowings. The digital transformation of our aircraft records will enhance our ability to adapt as well as generate major cost and efficiency savings. After working with the FLYdocs team on a number of different projects in the past, we are pleased to be on the next phase of our partnership.” CALC gets AAA rating: China Aircraft Leasing Group (CALC), a full value chain aircraft solutions provider for the global aviation industry, announced that the group has received a corporate credit rating of AAA by Dagong Global Credit Rating, one of the top credit rating agencies in China, confirming its positive outlook. This is the first time CALC received a corporate credit rating. It is also the first triple-A corporate rating Dagong Global has assigned to an operating aircraft lessor against a backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has not only illustrated the recognition of CALC’s integrated strengths by an authoritative ratings agency, but also highlighted CALC’s strong fundamentals which support its continued business development in spite of the challenging environment for the aviation industry. Lion Air names GSA in Turkey: Indonesian low-cost airline Lion Air has appointed APG as its GSA in Turkey in advance of launching flights to Istanbul. The APG office in Turkey will be providing full sales and marketing services as well as call centre and ticketing facilities effective 1 September. Lion Air is planning to start a scheduled direct flight to Turkey on 1 October 2021 with two weekly flights. The flight will depart every Monday and Friday at 2300hrs from Jakarta Soekarno Hatta International Airport (CGK), arriving in Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SAW) at 0730hrs the next day. The returning flight will depart Istanbul every Tuesday and Saturday at 0950hrs, arriving in Jakarta at 0230hrs the next day. Lion Air will deploy an Airbus A330 with a capacity of 440 seats on the route. For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Matt Driskill at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Head of Sales Kay Rolland at [email protected]